Corrupted Innocence
by kelles
Summary: This is a very AU telling of how Rip Van Winkle may have come to work for Millenium and become a vampire. Written for Verdandi24. ONE SHOT [C]


**AN:** This is an AU story of how Rip Van Winkle may have come to work for Millenium and become a vampire. It goes the popular fanon belief that Alucard was her sire. Not much is known about Rip and this is just a story.

**Note:** The lines quoted in the story are from the German opera Tannhauser,written by Richard Wagner.

**Disclaimer** - I do not own Hellsing, Tannhauser, or Rip Van Winkle.

* * *

It was the summer of her seventeenth year and the girl slept into the afternoon again. She slept so late during the summer that her brother had given her the nickname of Rip Van Winkle. She didn't mind really. The girl liked it better then her real name – Felizitas. She honestly did not know what her parents had been thinking – to name her something that means happiness! She often wondered if her birth name was the reason she was always so cheerful. She decided instead that it was probably because life had been good to her up to now – Rip truly did not have anything to be sad about. 

Today, Frans, the boy who had been courting her for the past three months was taking her to her first German opera, Götterdämmerung. Rip had been had fallen in love with opera when her father played an opera album on their record player. Rip had been only six years old then and now her collection of opera music filled her bedroom closet. She had all opera music from every country but German was her favorite. _But tonight, I get to see and hear the opera live!_ Rip nearly squealed with happiness.

"Felizitas! Are you going to get up? If you sleep any longer, you will miss the opera!" Her mother hollered from downstairs.

"Mutti! Please don't call me that. I don't go by that name any longer. It is Rip." The girl replied.

"That dreaded name – well whoever you are, please get up before Frans gets here." Her mother hollered back.

"Oh fine!" Rip yawned and stretched and got out of bed. Nothing was going to make her miss tonight. Rip took a long bath and washed her long brown hair. She looked in the mirror as she combed it. _I look like such a little girl. Look at me – no chest or hips and these freckles! At least my hair is long…_ Rip wondered what Frans saw in her. Surely it could not have been physical – sometimes Rip thought she looked boy like a boy then a girl. She put on a long black dress that complimented her thin frame, put make-up on, and went downstairs to eat. Mama was making strudel – she could smell it.

Frans finally picked her up in his father's automobile and they drove to the playhouse. Rip could not have been more excited if she had traveled to another country. She knew all of the words by heart. Rip had to bite her tongue to stop herself from singing. Frans and she held hands during the show and the young man kept staring at her when he should have been watching the opera. _What is wrong with him? Why is he not watching? It is not often one gets a chance to see such a spectacular show._ After the first few times, Rip glared at him. Finally he looked away. For the rest of the show, Rip got transported into another world as the opera absorbed her mind and soul completely.

Her happiness was to be short-lived. In the moments that followed the opera, her destiny changed. Never would she have guessed that so much could change in a single moment. If she had known, perhaps Rip would not have waited so long to leave the opera house. Frans did not like being on the streets so late at night. The Nazi soldiers were not so nice to run into late at night – even if you looked as he did, so incredibly German. Rip's features often brought questions about her nationality. Frans was getting more nervous by the minute but Rip had insisted on going backstage to get her program autographed. He had learned the hard way that once she put her mind to something, there was no stopping her.

Rip and Frans were on their way back to the car when they first saw the soldiers. A feeling of dread filled Rip the moment they looked at her and Frans. The men were looking at them like they wanted to eat them. She could not help but shiver as they walked past the soldiers. When nothing happened, Rip thought it was over. She could not have been more wrong.

Frans was opening the car door when a voice chilled his very soul. "Oh, isn't that sweet? Are you two out for an evening date?" A slightly plump soldier spoke to him, his voice filled with sarcasm.

Rip spoke first. She knew how nervous her date got around Nazi soldiers. "Ja. We went to see the most beautiful opera, Sir." One of the soldiers, a tall and handsome blonde man shoved her against the car.

"What do you think gentlemen? Do you think they will do? It has been too long since we've had a meal. Or should we let them go?" The fat soldier asked.

"Major, don't say that – we've waited so long. Tonight was supposed to be for hunting." A younger soldier responded.

"Ahh okay, vell then – go ahead. Go ahead and eat them – the boy first. I want to watch the girl as she sees her friend being eaten."

Rip watched in horror as several of the Nazi shoulders attacked Frans. Their teeth grew into long fangs and drank sunk them into every part of his body drinking his blood. She tried to stop them but the silent soldier held her back. Frans wailed, his voice echoing in Rip's ears, as the monsters continued to consume his flesh and blood.

After they finished, the soldiers turned to her – still hungry for more. Rip felt the tears forming in her eyes. She didn't want to cry – Rip had to be strong. They would not do this to her. The Major approached her and caressed her cheek with his fingers. They were as cold as ice.

"It vould be a shame to kill her. She is such a pretty little thing. There is something about this one. With a few experiments – she vould be very strong. We could use someone like her. It is not time for her to die yet. She has yet to meet Samiel." The Major continued stroked her hair as if she was his child – or pet.  
So Rip did not die on that day. She lived to see the next. Her death happened when a strange looking doctor started his experiments. Rip did not truly know pain until she laid on the cold metal table and the mad doctor injected her with the blood of others, among other things. There was one consolidation. Knowing she liked opera music, he ordered the Doc to play it while working on the girl. It was music to his ears to hear the girl's cries while the opera played in the background. The words seemed so fitting for the girl.

_From doom of wrath to save the sinner,  
An angel from on high was sent.  
But ah! profanely here to win her,  
I would have dared with mad intent!  
Oh, Thou, throning above our mortal frailty,  
Thou who hast sent this guardian saint to me!  
Have mercy, Thou, I cry to Thee despairing!  
Oh, from the gulf of error set me free._

The opera played loudly while Rip was beaten, tortured, mutilated, and raped. Her punishment for not dying with Frans was several days of abuse – until the fools thought she had broke. Rip would not let the fat man win. She created a world in her mind to save herself. In this world she was playing the lead in a German opera. The Doc inflicted ungodly pain to see how much she could withstand before breaking. Once her mind broke from the torture – Maxx broke her spirit by violating her body.

To protect herself from the repeated pain, Rip created a world inside her mind. She played the lead in a tragic opera – again and again. Nothing could touch her now She smiled cheerfully as the Major raped her, as Doc cut up her body with sharp instruments, as foreign blood was pumped into her veins. Rip would smile in the same way when she killed innocents and non-innocents alike. They were all the same to her.

Rip woke several days later. The silent soldier brought her a cup filled with a red liquid. She did not know why but she craved it. It quenched the sadness and rage within her soul.

"So little one," the Major asked when he saw her, "vat is your name?"

Rip studied the strange fat man. Something told her not to trust him but she had no recollection of the torture she suffered at his hands. She grinned at him, "Rip Van Winkle."

The Major grinned at her. She would make the perfect hunter someday. First she would play the part of a regular werewolf in Hitler's army. When the war was over – she would begin to hunt. And someday when Maxx no longer needed her – he would throw her away.


End file.
